The Tiger Man of India

The man behind the tiger conservationist projects in India, Kailash Sankhala was born on January 30, 1925. His journey with Project Tiger started when he shot a tiger during a hunt. Guilt-ridden, he decided to dedicate his career towards their conservation

The Tiger Man of India - Kailash Sankhala. Source: TheBetterIndia

The dwindling numbers of the majestic Royal Bengal Tigers in the Indian subcontinent have been a great cause of concern for conservationists over decades. While hunting as a sport has almost been shamed into an end, the practise of hunting and poaching tigers for economic benefit in black markets is still horrifically prevalent in many parts of India. The Indian government, along with many wildlife organisations, have worked to restore and protect the number of tigers indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.

Project Tiger was initiated by the government of India in 1973 towards protecting and increasing the scarce tiger population in India. The project's first director was Kailash Sankhala - the driving force behind these revolutionary conservationist efforts.

Born on January 30, 1925, Sankhala was an avid biology enthusiast. Growing up in his hometown of Jodhpur, he went on to pursue a career in the Indian Forest Services (IFS) after completing a bachelor’s degree in biology. As an officer for the IFS, Kailash Sankhala was responsible for sanctioning hunting permits. Not only did he sanction these permits, but in the 1950s, he went on a hunt himself – and killed a tiger.

The incident left him shaken up, he couldn’t bring himself to stop feeling guilty about killing the striped canine. Consequently, he started looking into conservationist strategies for protecting India’s tiger population.

Sankhala was chosen to serve as the Director of the Delhi Zoological Park. Despite protests by the public, he refused to make the tigers exist simply as caged-up exhibits any longer. He researched relentlessly regarding the habitats that tigers find favourable, their estimated numbers in different parts of India, ways to ensure no poacher or hunter was exploiting the animals, and so on.

He convinced Indira Gandhi, along with the International Union of Conservation of Nature, to grasp the urgency of the issue and to implement a complete ban on tiger-hunting. His research on the subject, along with his experience and observational skills have formed the basis of the conservation projects set up under Project Tiger since 1973.

For this selfless devotion to the conservation of tigers, Kailash Sankhala was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992.

Over the years, Project Tiger has evolved from a mere project to an extensive, ambitious system which has imbibed the essence of Sankhala’s legacy.